When bedridden patients have to maintain a substantially motionless position for prolonged periods of time, they develop bed sores, Decubitus Ulcers, on the skin. These sores are formed primarily because the pressure exerted on the skin surface under the bony prominences of the patient, which bear most of the weight of the patient when the patient's body presses against the ordinary mattress, obstructs the circulation of blood in the bony capillaries directly under these surfaces.
Certain types of body support apparatus have been constructed to overlie the mattress and support the patient in such manner as to minimize ulcer formation. Such apparatus is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,517,693, 4,422,194, and 4,534,078.
The present invention is directed toward a new type of body support apparatus which has the same beneficial action as the known types of apparatus, but which is much less expensive to produce and which can be removed from the underlying apparatus and replaced as necessary by one untrained person of average strength. Moreover this new type of apparatus is constituted by a number of separable components which can be cleaned easily and which can be individually replaced whereby it is not necessary to replace the entire apparatus should one or another component need replacement.